"The president needs to put meat on the bones of gun control." - Gene Stilp

If there is to be a collection of bold agenda accomplishments in President Barack Obama's second term, the first step down that long tedious path begins Tuesday night at his State of the Union address.

After re-claiming the White House in November, Obama delivered an outline of his second term agenda at his inaugural address. Among his goals were advancing gay rights, reforming and modernizing U.S. immigration, and addressing climate change.

But broad strokes will not get his agenda passed, or even convince the American public that his ideals are worthy objectives for the nation.

View full sizePresident Barack Obama receives the oath of office from Chief Justice John Roberts as first Lady Michelle holds the bible at the ceremonial swearing-in at the U.S. Capitol during the 57th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, Monday, Jan. 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

And the president's gun control proposals — conceived in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school shootings in December — are expected to top his list.

Obama has advocated a universal background check for every gun purchase, a ban on military-style assault weapons, and limiting the number of rounds sold in ammunition magazines. And he's tapped Vice President Joe Biden to sell the notion across the nation.

Biden brought his gun control summit tour to Philadelphia Monday arguing that no one “should have any worry about their constitutional rights being violated. Zero. None.”

But Second Amendment proponents, who feared Obama was coming for their guns as soon as he was first elected in 2008, remain wary of the president and his gun-related proposals.

Obama supporters hope his State of the Union address will help allay such fears.

“The president needs to put meat on the bones of gun control,” said Gene Stilp, area Democratic activist and the party's 2012 11th district congressional candidate.

Stilp's comments came during last week's Pennsylvania Democratic Party winter meeting in Hershey, where other party faithfuls reflected his hope that Obama's persuasive oratory can sway those concerned that the president's gun control proposal is an autocratic power grab.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. was one Democrat who hoped the president remained focused on repairing the economy by bolstering manufacturing.

“With its upcoming budget the Administration has a unique opportunity to focus federal policy on our manufacturing sector,” Casey said in a release Monday. “I’m hopeful that the administration will use this year to focus on a segment of our economy, the manufacturing sector that creates family sustaining jobs and supports Pennsylvania’s economy.”

Other Democrats will be looking for Obama to address promises from the first campaign that remained unfulfilled. Top of that list will be immigration reform, a particularly prickly issue because Latinos, the group most commonly associated with illegal immigration, are also the fastest growing voting bloc in the nation.

Tough immigration talk from Republicans during the 2012 presidential campaign prompted about 70 percent of American Hispanics to vote for Obama. And the GOP took notice. Much of the talk nationally, and at last weekend's state GOP winter meeting in Harrisburg, focused on the party becoming more “ethnic” and diverse.

“It's the work we're going to do in outreach to perhaps bring a little more color to this room,” Pennsylvania Republican Party Secretary John McNally told fellow party leaders Saturday.

But just last month, several congressional Republicans bashed a bipartisan Senate immigration plan that largely reflects Obama's position of providing a path to citizenship for the 11 million people already in the country illegally.

“The proposed pathway to citizenship will undoubtedly encourage millions more to flock to our country illegally, consequently taking advantage of the benefits that American citizenship has to offer,” U.S. Rep. and immigration watchdog Lou Barletta, R-Hazleton, said last month. “This is the 1986 amnesty all over again.”

And if Obama is to be successful advancing his immigration, gun control ad other second term agenda items, he'll need to draw upon shrewder politicking skills than he displayed in his first term.

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